Tribune News Service
Patiala, March 19
In the highest single-day spike of the year, Patiala reported 271 positive cases today, including 20 faculty members of Punjabi University.
With this, the tally of active Covid cases has now risen to 1,680. After Thapar Institute, now Punjabi University is seemingly inching closer to becoming a Covid hotspot. With 20 new cases on Friday, the total number of staff members infected stands at 41. Of the 271 positive cases, only 40 were the contacts of the already positive patients, while 231 were reported from hospital OPDs.
Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Satinder Singh said the city had reported 168 cases. Other cases were reported from Kauli (26), Nabha (15), Bhadson (13), Rajpura and Dudhan Sadhan (12 each). Besides, 10 positive cases were from Kallon Majra and six from Shurtana.
Dr Satinder said: “We are trying to contain the spread by creating containment zones. Besides, testing has also been ramped up by the staff.”
Meanwhile, Dr Sumeet Singh, District Epidemiologist, said the district was heading towards the peak of the second wave. He said their focus was to timely address the serious cases of Covid so that lives could be saved. “With average daily cases above 200, we are heading towards attaining the peak of the second wave. New containment areas will be announced soon to curb the spread,” said Sumeet.
